عنوان

The social construction and reconstruction of community.

Number

TLets264345

Title Proper

The social construction and reconstruction of community.

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Bateson, G.

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

University of Central England in Birmingham

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

1996

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

University of Central England in Birmingham

Text preceding or following the note

1996

Text of Note

Community is a complex term whose usage within sociology has ranged from beinga key idea to being dismissed as irrelevant. At the same time as its virtual dismissal bysociology, community continued to have widespread usage within everyday language andas an adjunct to social policy. Its ubiquitous nature and the lasting power of the conceptwere evident at the outset of this research and created a number of contradictions that wereconsidered worthy of further exploration.This thesis surveys sociological approaches to community and relates the career ofthe concept to changes in the political and economic context. A new approach is suggestedwhich captures both the dynamic, kaleidoscopic nature of the concept at any one time andthe layered, archaeological nature of its development over time. This provides a way outof the impasse of traditional sociological approaches to community.The approach proposes that different conceptualisations of community can beconstructed through specific fragments of meaning being differentially articulated toproduce various constellations of meaning. Partial fixations of meaning, within any oneparticular context, and the existence of common elements allow a description both of theuniqueness and generic nature of the concept. This provides a model for theconceptualisation of community and this has been applied to ideal type descriptions ofcommunity and to a number of well-known community studies.Empirical explorations of the conceptualisation of community were undertaken atCastleV ale, Birmingham. Conceptualisationso f community were recordedf rom the variousperspectives of residents, local workers and local media. These were related to patterns ofhistorical development and to recent political and economic restructurings.Different stakeholders' approaches to community were related to the time of theestate's construction (1960s), the time of settlement and adjustment (1970s), the time ofreduction in state social intervention (1980s) and the time during which the estate took onHousing Action Trust status (1990s). Different and overlapping conceptualisations ofcommunity were explained using the approach already developed. From this it was possibleto describe ways in which the wider context interacts with day-to-day lifestyle practicesthrough representations and understandings of community. A loose typification ofcommunity at Castle Vale has been developed. Taking the discussion further allowed adevice to be developed for the description of various conceptualisations of community, andallowed a framework to be developed within which different conceptualisations ofcommunity have been located.This work has allowed a reassessmenot f the position of community within sociologyat the present time. It identifies those areas of momentum that are re-establishingcommunity on the political and social agenda, suggests that the time is now right forsociology to reformulate a more adequate approach to community, and asserts that theapproach developed aids moves towards new theoretically-informed ways of conveying thecomplexities of life at a local level within a more globalised context. It is a communitystudy more appropriate for this age and is part of the enterprise of developing moresophisticated approaches to community.

Housing estate communities; Stakeholders

Bateson, G.

University of Central England in Birmingham

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y